Kyneton Caring Community.
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Vision & Values
  • Our Services
  • Free Foodbank
  • Governance & Board
  • Our People
  • Donations
  • Volunteers
  • Strategic Partners
  • Contact
  • Kyneton Safety Net Alliance
Picture
Our People
​Management Team
​
Kerryn Wildenburg – Operations Manager
Kerryn joined KCC as the full-time Operations Manager in December 2017 and through her life and career experience brings to the role considerable expertise in areas including: hospitality, retail management (food & variety goods), and food preparation.  She also has considerable experience in community and crisis support and has been an active community volunteer.

Having grown up on the Mornington Peninsula, Kerryn moved to Kyneton in 2011 with her partner Simon Furness, where they have raised their two daughters and become valued members of the Kyneton community.  Prior to her appointment in her current role with KCC, Kerryn’s first interaction with the organisation was as a volunteer with its soup kitchen program in 2014. 

Before moving to Kyneton, Kerryn worked as the Larder Chef at the Rosebud RSL restaurant and prior to this spent four years as the Assistant Manager with M&M Peables Gift and Variety in Rosebud, where she was responsible for the day-to-day running of the store, visual merchandising, bookkeeping, inventory management and product ordering, and staff training.  During her time with M&M Peables, Kerryn was the Retail Customer Service Award Winner with the “NAB Business Excellence Awards Rosebud 2009”.

Since moving to Kyneton Kerryn has worked with a number of local food orientated businesses including, Watts Fresh Grocers and Bakers Delight.  She has subsequently gained qualifications in “Home and Community Care” (Certificate 3) and “Aged Care” (Certificate 3), through the Kyneton Community and Learning Centre, and completed placements at Bupa Aged Care Kyneton as a personal care worker and with Macedon Ranges Shire Council as a personal care and home care worker, looking after multiple clients with a broad variety of needs.

As a result of her considerable life experience and her own personal challenges, Kerryn is able bring a tremendous level of care and compassion for those within the broader KCC community.  Kerryn is an experienced mentor in the alcoholic rehabilitation 12 step program and also holds qualifications in Hospitality Operations (Certificate 4) and Business Administration (Certificate 3).


Picture
​Simon Furness – Assistant Operations Manager (Volunteer)
Simon joined KCC as a volunteer in December 2017, and in this capacity acts as the Assistant Operations Manager on an as needed basis.  As a result of his broad and considerable life experience, as well as his genuine desire to support those in need within our community, Simon is a valuable asset to the KCC team.  He is an experienced drug and alcohol rehabilitation mentor and life coach, and was the founder and key facilitator of a number of drug and alcohol support groups within the Macedon Ranges region.  Simon’s first interaction with KCC was as a volunteer with its soup kitchen program in 2014.  

Born in England to Australian parents, Simon grew up in Canada (Ontario) to the age of 12, before moving back to his family’s home-town of Melbourne.  A talented junior sportsman, Simon played a number of sports including senior level ice hockey, with the highlight of his career being part of an informal Australian national team who played the visiting Canadian team in the early 1990’s.  

After a self-described “misspent youth”, Simon moved to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia at the age of 18 to be near his parents, who were already living in Borneo due to work commitments.  In the five years Simon spent in Borneo he learned Bahasa Melayu (the national language of Malaysia) and became a qualified instructor with Outward Bound Sabah (part of the Outward Bound International network), where he was responsible for delivering 7, 14 and 21 day wilderness-based, experiential personal development programs for corporate executives and young adults.  

He also completed a Higher Diploma in Hotel Tourism Management through the University of Birmingham (UK) and worked as a Management Trainee at the Hyatt Regency Kinabalu and Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort, in Kota Kinabalu.  During his time in Borneo, Simon learned to interact with people from all walks of life and levels of society – from billionaires to illegal immigrants living in shanti villages, and people from all parts of the world.

After returning to Australia, Simon travelled extensively around the country and worked in a wide variety of industries including a stint as a Management Supervisor at the Desert Gardens Ayers Rock Resort in Alice Springs, before settling back in Victoria where he worked in large-scale construction as a concretor, truck driver and bobcat operator, until his forced retirement due to a serious spinal injury.

Simon and his partner Kerryn Wildenburg and their two daughters moved to Kyneton in 2011.  Simon is an active member of the local Kyneton community and an avid golfer and member of the Kyneton Golf Club 

Team of Volunteers
​KCC only operates due to the significant involvement of its team of volunteers for whose support we are very grateful. Our volunteers come from all walks of life and personal circumstances and we are constantly amazed at the generosity of the people within our community.  Some of the roles our volunteers assist with include:
  • manning our free foodbank facility and assisting our foodbank clients with their needs
  • sorting and stocking our foodbank shelves, fridges and freezers
  • picking up donated food from various sources, locally and in Melbourne and Bendigo
  • helping to sort and price the donated goods for the op shop
  • helping out in the op shop, serving customers and visual merchandising
  • picking up donated goods for the op shop
  • helping maintain and upgrade the "KCC headquarters" building, to allow us to provide more support to our community
  • offering our foodbank clients a shoulder to lean on or simply someone to talk, to in our drop in centre 
  •  helping with our fundraising activities, including writing grant applications for government and philanthropic grant programs
  • providing professional expertise in counselling and social work related skills, to enable us to refer our clients with needs beyond just a shortage of food, to other local agencies who can provide the help they need 
​
Gallery of our wonderful volunteers
Picture
Karly Thaw who is with us on Tuesdays and responsible for our amazing front window displays
Picture
Lois Burley one of our great allrounders. Lois & her husband David are at KCC on a Thursday & have been with us since 2017
Picture
John Boyd who is at KCC on Fridays making sure the op shop runs smoothly
Picture
Simon Furness with the ever reliable and "always there when you need him" Ron (Ronnie) Muir
Picture
Carol Gibson who is with KCC every Tuesday helping out in the Op Shop
Picture
Elizabeth Harvey who is at KCC on Wednesday mornings helping out with sorting and the Op Shop displays
Picture
David Barker who is our Op Shop assistant extraordinaire on Monday and Wednesdays
Picture
Margaret Wells, our specialist organiser of the books and toys for the Op Shop
Picture
Barb Richards one of our hardest working volunteers who is at KCC more often than not, helping sort op shop donations
Picture
David Burley our general handyman & Mr Fixit of donated items in need of a little TLC and errand runner
Picture
Team of volunteers from the St Paul's Kyneton Anglican Church who make some of our delicious take home meals
Picture
Nancy Boyd who is at KCC on Thursdays helping look after the op shop
Picture
Elizabeth who is at KCC on a Monday and helps with the sorting of our op shop donations
Picture
Chris Cregan who helps us out in the Op Shop on Tuesday mornings
Picture
Sharon Wynschenk who is at KCC on Wednesdays as our Foodbank Coordinator
Picture
Peter Ryan, volunteers helping out in the op shop on Monday mornings
Picture
Robert from "Robert & Callie's Test & Tag", kindly donating his time to test and tag our donated electrical equipment



 
Kyneton Caring Community Inc.
​60 Mollison Street, Kyneton Vic 3444
​ABN: 92 467 326 595

KCC is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) as a Public Benevolent Institution and  is endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) with the Australian Taxation Office

   
Proudly powered by Weebly